Faced with an increasingly difficult challenge in growing both average revenue per user (ARPU) and numbers of subscribers, wireless carriers are trying to develop a host of new products, services, and business models based on data services. One such service is location-based services, which provide information specific to a location including actual locations of a user. It is expected that location based services will generate additional business for the carrier, from both the mobile user and content providers.
For the mobile user as well as the service provider, location-based services offer many opportunities. For example, location-based services can increase revenue of the service provider, e.g., network carrier, while improving services to end users, e.g., mobile users. Some examples of location-based services that can be provided to the mobile user include:                Providing the nearest business or service, such as an ATM or restaurant;        Providing weather reports which are germane to the location where the user is using the mobile device; and/or        Providing advertisements to end users, e.g., recipients, etc.        
For the network carrier, location-based services provide value add by enabling services such as:                Resource tracking with dynamic distribution (e.g., taxis, service people, rental equipment, doctors, fleet scheduling, etc.); and        Proximity-based notification (push or pull) (e.g., targeted advertising, buddy list, common profile matching (dating), automatic airport check-in).        
Currently, wireless companies already have the ability to determine a person's location through various mechanisms. For example, some wireless devices are GPS enabled allowing them to use satellites to determine their location. In other cases, cell tower triangulation or single cell tower location is used to determine location. For more coarse-grained depths using a web browser, an IP address lookup table correlates the IP address with a specific region. This is useful if a service does not need to know the exact location of an individual, like a weather service.
Traffic monitoring systems exist in most major cities allowing emergency services to quickly identify traffic accidents and alert travelers to traffic conditions. These traffic systems monitor the average speed of vehicles on major roads by installing monitoring hardware at intervals along highway. The infrastructure costs to implement this typical traffic monitoring system are extensive and limited to major cities. Also, such monitoring hardware is difficult to install, tear down and then reinstall at other locations. In addition, the monitoring hardware does not lend itself to notifying driver's of driving conditions; instead, the monitoring hardware typically will communicate with a government entity which, in turn, may make it available to driver's on a web site or dedicated traffic channel. To obtain such information, the driver must actively request such information by going to the web site or tuning to the radio station, for example. The use of the web site, though, for example, makes it impractical to use while driving and may thus not be able to provide real time traffic information to the driver.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.